2023 Greek legislative election

How do political campaigns target voters?

Methodology

In collaboration with Who Targets Me, we monitored over 300 political advertisers in Greece during the 2023 Greek parliamantary election to better understand how campaigns use different targeting methods made available by Meta. To do this, we used data from the Meta Ad Library, using the new ‘Audience’ data which gives some detail on how pages target their ads.

To better understand the election, we kept only advertisers who:

  1. Advertised in the last 7 days (May 10th - May 16th 2023)
  2. Advertised in the last 30 days (Apr 17th - May 16th 2023)

Note: Meta only provides 7, 30 and 90 days windows for the targeting data in their Ad Library. Meta’s data also lags by a few days. We will update this report as soon as new data is available.

We also include spending data from the Google Transparency Report, however the data on targeting criteria reported here exclusively refers to Meta platforms.

About Us

Alexandros Gotinakos

This is a longer card with supporting text below as a natural lead-in to additional content. This content is a little bit longer.

Link
Fabio Votta

Ph.D. candidate in Political Communication at the University of Amsterdam who studies (online) political microtargeting and its usage around the world.

Link
Who Targets Me

Grassroots activist group advocating for transparency in the digital age by monitoring political adverts on social media and their impact on democracy.

Link

Topline Statistics

Meta

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €699,786 and ran 10040 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

ND

230


1. Νέα Δημοκρατία (€103,414)
2. Kyriakos Mitsotakis (€55,054)
3. Vassilis Kikilias (€12,430)

5,723

€421,957

SYRIZA

165


1. Alexis Tsipras (€60,273)
2. Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Ενωτικό Κοινωνικό Μέτωπο (€24,916)
3. Γιάννης Μαντζουράνης (€10,513)

2,536

€177,232

PASOK

107


1. Νίκος Ανδρουλάκης (€27,430)
2. Mihalis Katrinis (€2,810)
3. Χρήστος Σαλαλές (€2,639)

1,407

€85,196

EL

26


1. Άγγελος Αγραφιώτης (€2,221)
2. Αθανάσιος Μιχαήλ, Υποψήφιος Βουλευτής Β3' Νοτίου Τομέα Αθηνών (€1,661)
3. Καμπούρης Φίλιππος - Υπ. Βουλευτής Β1 Βόρειου Τομέα Αθηνών - Ελληνική Λύση (€1,132)

229

€9,872

MeRA25

17


1. ΜέΡΑ25 (€2,589)
2. Yanis Varoufakis - Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης (€523)
3. Νικόλαος Πέττας - Nikolaos Pettas (€465)

149

€6,157

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €382,728 and ran 5846 ad copies on Meta in this timeframe.

Number of Advertisers Top Spenders Number of Ads Total Spend

ND

200


1. Νέα Δημοκρατία (€84,776)
2. Kyriakos Mitsotakis (€44,765)
3. Niki Kerameus (€5,648)

3,377

€257,667

SYRIZA

145


1. Alexis Tsipras (€18,876)
2. Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Ενωτικό Κοινωνικό Μέτωπο (€9,931)
3. Γιάννης Μαντζουράνης (€6,261)

1,409

€79,870

PASOK

95


1. Νίκος Ανδρουλάκης (€7,130)
2. Mihalis Katrinis (€2,105)
3. Γιώργος Νικητιάδης (€1,672)

810

€36,320

EL

19


1. Άγγελος Αγραφιώτης (€985)
2. Ελληνική Λύση (€791)
3. Αθανάσιος Μιχαήλ, Υποψήφιος Βουλευτής Β3' Νοτίου Τομέα Αθηνών (€682)

152

€5,247

MeRA25

17


1. ΜέΡΑ25 (€1,475)
2. Yanis Varoufakis - Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης (€449)
3. Νικόλαος Πέττας - Nikolaos Pettas (€359)

101

€4,152

Google

For Google platforms, data accessed via the Google Transparency Report provides exact spending on how much money was spent by parties in last 30 and 7 days.

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

In total, political parties spend €383,950 and ran 1718 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

ND

974


1. Nea Demokratia (€144,350)
2. ΠΙΕΡΡΑΚΑΚΗΣ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΟΣ (€14,800)
3. ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ ΚΥΡΑΝΑΚΗΣ (€9,400)

€229,000

SYRIZA

320


1. ΣΥΝΑΣΠΙΣΜΟΣ ΡΙΖΟΣΠΑΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΑΡΙΣΤΕΡΑΣ (€110,250)
2. Αθανάσιος Μωραΐτης (€2,550)
3. Μενέλαος Μαλτέζος (€2,500)

€122,750

PASOK

229


1. ΠΑΣΟΚ – Κίνημα Αλλαγής (€7,500)
2. ΕΛΕΝΗ ΜΑΡΙΑ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΑΚΗ (€2,300)
3. ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΠΕΤΑΛΩΤΗΣ (€1,950)

€16,450

KKE

72


1. ΚΟΜΜΟΥΝΙΣΤΙΚΟ ΚΟΜΜΑ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ (€10,950)

€10,950

MeRA25

78


1. ΠΕΤΤΑΣ ΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΣ (€3,400)
2. Ιωάννης Αναστασόπουλος (€650)
3. Γεώργιος Λογιάδης (€250)

€4,400

EL

45


1. Βασιλειάδης Αντώνιος (€400)

€400

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

In total, political parties spend €383,950 and ran 1718 ad copies on Google in this timeframe.

Number of Ads Top Spenders Total Spend

ND

974


1. Nea Demokratia (€144,350)
2. ΠΙΕΡΡΑΚΑΚΗΣ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΟΣ (€14,800)
3. ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ ΚΥΡΑΝΑΚΗΣ (€9,400)

€229,000

SYRIZA

320


1. ΣΥΝΑΣΠΙΣΜΟΣ ΡΙΖΟΣΠΑΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΑΡΙΣΤΕΡΑΣ (€110,250)
2. Αθανάσιος Μωραΐτης (€2,550)
3. Μενέλαος Μαλτέζος (€2,500)

€122,750

PASOK

229


1. ΠΑΣΟΚ – Κίνημα Αλλαγής (€7,500)
2. ΕΛΕΝΗ ΜΑΡΙΑ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΑΚΗ (€2,300)
3. ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΠΕΤΑΛΩΤΗΣ (€1,950)

€16,450

KKE

72


1. ΚΟΜΜΟΥΝΙΣΤΙΚΟ ΚΟΜΜΑ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ (€10,950)

€10,950

MeRA25

78


1. ΠΕΤΤΑΣ ΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΣ (€3,400)
2. Ιωάννης Αναστασόπουλος (€650)
3. Γεώργιος Λογιάδης (€250)

€4,400

EL

45


1. Βασιλειάδης Αντώνιος (€400)

€400

Combined Stats

Spending per Targeting Criteria

How much did campaigns spend on different targeting methods?

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Overall

By Party

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Overall

By Party

Top Targeted (Detailed) Audiences

Here, we show the top targeted audiences for each party for the “detailed” targeting that Meta offers (ranked by amount of Euro spend). Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”.

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Top Contested Audiences

Here, we show the top most contested audiences, i.e. where all parties have spent considerable amounts of money competing to reach voters with the same interests. Most (but not all) of these audiences are “interest” audiences, i.e. the parties targeted people interested in “Books” or “Politics”. In each row on the right hand side, you can see how much in total was spend on that specific target audience.

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Geo Targeting

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Regions

Cities

Cities (Maps)

ND

SYRIZA

PASOK

EL

ΜeRΑ25

Geo Exclusion

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

Cities

Age Targeting

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Gender Targeting

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)

May 10th - May 16th 2023 (Last 7 days)

Job Targeting

Apr 17th - May 16th 2023 (Last 30 days)